Nachinarkiniyar

Medieval Indian scholar of the Tamil language

Nacciṇārkkiṇiyar, also spelled Naccinarkkiniyar or Nachinarkiniyar, was a 14th-century Tamil and Sanskrit scholar famous for his commentaries on Sangam literature and post-Sangam medieval Tamil literature.^[1]^[2]^[3] His commentary on some of the most studied Tamil texts such as the Tolkappiyam,^[4] Kuruntokai and Civaka Cintamani have guided scholarship that followed him, including modern era studies of Tamil literature.^[5] According to Kamil Zvelebil, a Tamil literature scholar, Naccinarkiniyar had a "keen poetic sense, awareness of word values". He vividly analyzed the primary text and secondary literature on that primary text, in a sophisticated impartial manner seen in modern era scholarship. He paid attention to minute details with a critical observation, states Zvelebil, and Naccinarkiniyar's work shows "a clear mind and a vast erudition" of Tamil and Sanskrit works.^[6]

Naccinarkiniyar was a Brahmin of the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism.^[7] Nacinarkiniyar wrote commentaries on the Tolkāppiyam, Pattuppāṭṭu, Kaliththokai, Kuṟuntokai and Civaka Cintamani.

References

^ Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 24, 34, 51, 257.
^ Charles Allen (2017). Coromandel: A Personal History of South India. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-1-4087-0540-7.
^ Emmrich, Christoph (2011). "The Ins and Outs of the Jains in Tamil Literary Histories". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 39 (6). Springer: 599–646. doi:10.1007/s10781-011-9125-0.
^ Kamil Zvelebil 1973, p. 135.
^ Kamil Zvelebil 1973, pp. 24, 34, 51.
^ Kamil Zvelebil 1973, p. 257.
^ The Tamil Plutarch, Pg 57

Bibliography

Chitty, Simon Casie (1859). The Tamil Plutarch, containing a summary account of the lives of poets and poetesses of Southern India and Ceylon. Jaffna: Ripley & Strong.
K. Arumugham (1981). A critical study of Naccinarkiniyar. University of Madras.
Tolkāppiyar; P. S. Subrahmanya Sastri (1999). Tolkāppiyam: Poruḷatikāram. Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute. ISBN 978-81-85170-27-5.
K A Nilakanta Sastri (1966). A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Oxford University Press.
David Shulman (2016). Tamil: A Biography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97465-4.
Takanobu Takahashi (1995). Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics. BRILL Academic. ISBN 90-04-10042-3.
Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
Kamil Zvelebil (1973), The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-03591-5
Kamil Zvelebil (1992). Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature. BRILL. p. 73. ISBN 90-04-09365-6.

Tamil language

History

Dialects

Indian	Bangalore Tamil dialects Central Tamil dialect Kongu Tamil Madras Bashai Madurai Tamil Nellai Tamil
Sri Lankan	Negombo Batticaloa Jaffna
Sociolects	Brahmin Tamil Arwi Malaysian Tamil

Global organizations

Literature

Classics	Sangam literature Tamil books of Law Five Great Epics Ponniyin Selvan List of Sangam poets Commentaries in Tamil literary tradition
Devotional literature	Cīrappurānam Kampa Irāmāyaṉam Nālāyira Tivviya Pirapantam Tēmpāvaṉi Tirumurai Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai Thiruppugal Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam Vinayagar Agaval Tamil Ganaptya texts
Poetry	Kural Venpa Iraichchi Akam Puram Thinai Ullurai Ulā
Grammars and dictionaries	Agattiyam Nannūl Purapporul Venbamaalai Tolkāppiyam Caturakarāti Tamil Lexicon dictionary
History	Yāḻpāna Vaipava Mālai
Mathematics and natural science	Yerambam Kaṇakkatikāram